


Saw You There

by celeste9



Category: Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Awkward Flirting, Coffee, Coffee Shops, First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:07:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The girl had been sitting at the same table at Clint's favorite Starbucks every evening for the past week and a half.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saw You There

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geckoholic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/gifts).



> So I need to get moving again on reposting all my fandom stocking fics! This one was for geckoholic, just a wee AU meeting for the Hawkeyes. Could be sort of, vaguely Clint/Kate if you want, there's almost flirting. Bad, awkward flirting, because it's Clint. :D

The girl had been sitting at the same table at Clint’s favorite Starbucks every evening for the past week and a half. Clint had started to get in the habit of stopping in himself every night, mostly because the internet was free and he had a caffeine habit, but he made frankly terrible coffee himself. The girl always got a black coffee and then hunched down in front of her purple laptop (Clint appreciated her style), typing furiously. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, probably a college kid writing papers.

None of that was really noteworthy. (Well, except for the part where she was kinda cute, pale skin and dark hair, tiny and slender. Clint could notice, right? He was just a dude. It was fine.) The noteworthy part was the absolutely hilarious faces she made when she sipped her coffee, like it was the grossest thing she’d ever tasted.

And yet whenever Clint saw her in line, it was always the same. Coffee. Venti. Black.

Not that Clint cared. She could order whatever the hell she wanted, wasn’t hurting anybody.

He just… wondered, that was all. Why splurge on Starbucks coffee and not even enjoy it? If she just wanted the caffeine, why didn’t she load it up with milk and sugar and whatever crap everyone else did? She couldn’t be all that concerned about calories. Girl was _tiny._

A voice in his head that sounded an awful lot like Natasha told him to mind his own business. (Nat liked to say that voice was his brain trying to function like the brain of a normal human being. It sounded like her because she was the normal-est and best-functioning person he knew. Clint wasn’t sure that was quite true, but she was definitely better functioning than he was.)

The problem was that Clint never listened to that voice, no matter how many times it turned out to be right.

Clint ordered his own coffee one evening and then slid into the empty chair at the girl’s table. “Hey.”

The girl stared at him across the table. “Hey?”

“Can you clear something up for me?”

“I guess?” She’d narrowed her eyes and tensed faintly like she was getting ready to spray him in the face with pepper spray or something if he made a funny move.

“I’ve just noticed you in here, and--”

She tensed a bit more.

“--I wanna know why you always order black coffee when you just make these weird faces at it and throw half of it out anyway before you go. Are you just trying to look mature or something? Because honestly it’s kind of hilarious.”

Girl had a hell of a scowl. Even Nat would be impressed. “Do you always come up to strangers and say rude things to them?”

“Nah, guess you’re just lucky.”

“I’m five seconds from shouting, ‘pervert!’ Would that get you to leave me alone?”

“Aw, come on, this is my favorite Starbucks! It’s practically next door to my apartment!”

“And if you walk thirty more seconds in the opposite direction you’ll probably find another one. I could shout ‘rape!’ instead if you want.”

Clint winced. “Hey, now, let’s calm down a little. It was just a question. Curious, you know? It’s a flaw. I’ve been told I have many.” Mostly by Natasha. Or Bobbi. “I’m Clint. If we’ve been introduced then we’re not strangers anymore, right?”

The girl crossed her arms in front of her chest. After what felt like the longest twenty seconds of Clint’s life, she said, “Kate.”

“Kate. Kate, great, hi, Kate. Nice to meet you.”

Kate didn’t say anything.

“Come here often?”

She rolled her eyes.

Clint was starting to remember why he avoided teenagers. “Let me buy you a coffee. As an apology. I’ll make it a latte. You might actually like it.”

Kate’s pale skin flushed a little. Clint was starting to think maybe he’d been right about why she’d been stubbornly trying to drink black coffee. Girl was putting on a show of maturity, trying to grow up faster than she needed to.

Or maybe she was just trying to make the outside catch up to the inside.

“I like the caramel ones, myself,” Clint added, and Kate almost smiled.

**_End_ **   



End file.
